of the world will learn righteousness.] God does not punish for the sake of punishment merely; even his severities are the effects of goodness, and always directed to the advantage of those who feel them, or at least of others, “that they may hear, and fear, and do no more wickedness.” The great comprehensive lesson which He intends to teach by every judgment is, an awful regard to Himself as the moral governour of the world, and the practice of religion. Abp. Secker.

Isaiah 26:11

11. — yea, the fire of thine enemies &c.] Yea, that fire of thy wrath, which Thou reservest for thine enemies, shall devour them. Bp. Hall. 13. — other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: &c.] We, who had not the grace to submit ourselves wholly to thy governance, have been justly given over to the tyranny of wicked rulers, who have exacted sinful obedience from us: but we will stick close unto Thee alone, and through thy gracious aid will hold firm to thy truth, and yield to no other religion but that which Thou hast prescribed us. Bp. Hall.

Isaiah 26:19

19. Thy dead men shall live, &c.] Rather, “Thy dead shall live; my deceased, they shall rise.” Bp. Louth. The dissolution of a body politick is in figurative language signified by death, and the revival of a dissolved dominion by the resurrection of the dead. Sir I. Newton. The deliverance of the people of God from a state of depression is here thus expressed, with manifest opposition to what is said above (ver. 14,) of the tyrants under whom they had groaned, that they should be utterly destroyed, should never be restored to their former power and glory. It should appear, from the Prophet’s using this metaphor, that the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead was at that time a popular and common doctrine. Bp. Louth. The restoration of the Jews, whether after the Babylonish captivity, or after their dispersions in following times, is represented as a rising again from the dead by Ezekiel, chap. xxxvii; and this place of Isaiah may in its primary sense mean no more: but this was undoubtedly one of those texts upon which the ancient Jews grounded their belief of the resurrection, the hope of which was founded on “the Law and the Prophets,” as St. Paul tells them, Acts xxiv. 14. W. Louth. The ancient Jews understood this passage so: the Prophet speaks of the figurative and typical resurrection of the Jewish state and church, but the phraseology is taken from the resurrection of the last day, and to it is our attention intended to be directed. Vitringa. — thy dew is as the dew of herbs.] The force of the comparison seems to be, As the hidden dew of herbs revives them, so shall thine, O Lord, (compare Hos. xiv. 5,) the power of thy word and blessing, thy vivifying Spirit, call to life thy dead bodies; that is, those of thy faithful servants. Vitringa. 20. Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, &c.] The Prophet appears here in the person of God, to confirm the hopes and expectations contained in the preceding hymn of the faithful, by an exhortation to patience, and promise of support and deliverance from all the judgments and persecutions, which might in aftertimes befall the people of God, or Church of Christ; to terminate with those terrible but short calamities, The care of God over his vineyard. ISAIAH. His chastisements differ from judgments. Before CHRIST about 712.

out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her † blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

CHAP. XXVII.